1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to row crop cultivators and, more specifically, to a row crop cultivator for removing plant stalks and roots from a raised plant bed.
2. Related Art
Stalks and roots of plants, such as cotton grown in raised plant beds, often must removed from the beds after the harvest season to prepare the beds for the next planting season. In some applications, farmers desire to retain the plant beds during primary tillage in the fall. Stalk and root removal is particularly important in some cotton producing states where boll weevil eradication programs are in effect. Growers in these states use one of two methods to remove plant residue from beds. Some farmers run sweeps three to four inches deep on top of the cotton row to remove stalks and roots, and a disk follows the sweep to cut up the plant residue. This operation is performed on top of the beds only. A second method involves removal of stalks and roots with a digger wheel arrangement similar to that on a sugar beet harvester. Adjacent opposed wheels pinch and lift the stalk and roots, and then disks follow to cut up the plant residue. Cotton plants have a long tap root that reaches deeply into the ground. Usually the upper portion of the root system is cut out and removed by the tillage operation. Farmers prefer that the removed root portion be cut up into smaller pieces as much as possible. Present methods are not always entirely effective for adequate bed grooming and residue sizing without plant bed deterioration.